About Relevance
- Michael Burgner
- Cleveland, Tennessee, United States
- With all the modern terms used to describe culture and the modern church I like to simplify things and just say RELEVANCE! We're living in a Post-Christian or Post-Modern culture in America and many label modern churches as emergent and leaders as emerging. The term emergent is a bit confusing though it means "rising, up & coming, or promising." I like to say we're relevant! Relevant to what? Relevant to 21st century culture. I am determined to present the Gospel to 21st century post-christian culture and be effective in doing so. God used me in the 20th century to reach that culture and I celebrate what the church did in the last century. However, I refuse to replace relevance for religion. Whatever it takes to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to the 21st century, that is what I'm willing to do. My childhood was spend as the son of a pastor, and I became a preacher at the age of 18. I've been married since 1987 and have a boy and a girl.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Church @ the Movies..
The Haven, formerly known as the South Haven Church of God, was established 26 years ago on the south end of Blount County, TN in a rural area of town 5 miles away from the city. Blount County, home of Maryville & Alcoa, TN has a population of nearly 115,000 people, and is a rapidly growing city just south of Knoxville, TN. The church property is off the beaten path, and people in the county don't even know this church exists. In 26 years the best the church has ever done was back in the early 90's. For the past 12 years the church has not been able to overcome the 100 barrier.
Since the birth of the church 26 years ago the vision of being "a lighthouse on that hill" has always been it's dream, but unchurched people and 1st time visitors aren't finding their way to our church. The mentality of being "a lighthouse" means that we sit there on that hill, trying to keep the lights on, and wait for the lost to find us. This mentality has caused our church to face death, and must be overcome if we are going to be what God has called us to be. Instead of a lighthouse sitting in the same spot waiting for lost souls to wander in, we have to become a "rescue vessel" and go out into the sea searching for them. There is about to be a major shift at The Haven from "lighthouse" to "rescue vessel" as we are about to launch out into our city to seek the lost.
When I went there in March of this year the church was broke after going without a pastor for nearly 6 months. I have spent my time there trying to restructure an make this church a place where people in Blount county would want to visit, but I now realize that we will are not likely to get people to come way down to the south end of the county and find us. The church has seen nearly a 50% decrease in giving this year, and is to the point where if we don't do something, we're going to have to close it down.
The leaders and I have decided that we are not going to sit there and die, or wait on the unchurched people of the county to find us. We've decided to consider ourselves as “missionaries to Blount County” and “launch-out” this Christmas Season. We're moving our Sunday morning services to the local movie theater and launching an outreach campaign called “Christmas At The Movies.”
There are thousands of unchurched people in our county who would never visit a traditional church, but would go to a movie theater, because it is neutral ground. If we can't get the lost to come down south to us, we will go to them on “their turf” under “their terms” and reach them!
We have a marketing campaign that involves newspaper, billboards, website, etc. to get the word out as to this new Movie Theater Church. We have all but $3,000 of the money we need to do this project. I welcome your prayers, time, and ask for your financial support of this missions project. We are looking at this as a missions project, and considering ourselves missionaries. Go ahead and tell me it's crazy, risky, insane, or whatever, but we have decided expanding the Kingdom and reaching the lost are more important than keeping an old church of life support.
I welcome your comments and if you'd like to make a contribution you may go to www.thehavenchurch.com and click on "give." From there you may use your debit or credit card, and may also mark your contribution as "movie church" or "mission maryville". Thanks! Updates and praise reports will follow.
Since the birth of the church 26 years ago the vision of being "a lighthouse on that hill" has always been it's dream, but unchurched people and 1st time visitors aren't finding their way to our church. The mentality of being "a lighthouse" means that we sit there on that hill, trying to keep the lights on, and wait for the lost to find us. This mentality has caused our church to face death, and must be overcome if we are going to be what God has called us to be. Instead of a lighthouse sitting in the same spot waiting for lost souls to wander in, we have to become a "rescue vessel" and go out into the sea searching for them. There is about to be a major shift at The Haven from "lighthouse" to "rescue vessel" as we are about to launch out into our city to seek the lost.
When I went there in March of this year the church was broke after going without a pastor for nearly 6 months. I have spent my time there trying to restructure an make this church a place where people in Blount county would want to visit, but I now realize that we will are not likely to get people to come way down to the south end of the county and find us. The church has seen nearly a 50% decrease in giving this year, and is to the point where if we don't do something, we're going to have to close it down.
The leaders and I have decided that we are not going to sit there and die, or wait on the unchurched people of the county to find us. We've decided to consider ourselves as “missionaries to Blount County” and “launch-out” this Christmas Season. We're moving our Sunday morning services to the local movie theater and launching an outreach campaign called “Christmas At The Movies.”
There are thousands of unchurched people in our county who would never visit a traditional church, but would go to a movie theater, because it is neutral ground. If we can't get the lost to come down south to us, we will go to them on “their turf” under “their terms” and reach them!
We have a marketing campaign that involves newspaper, billboards, website, etc. to get the word out as to this new Movie Theater Church. We have all but $3,000 of the money we need to do this project. I welcome your prayers, time, and ask for your financial support of this missions project. We are looking at this as a missions project, and considering ourselves missionaries. Go ahead and tell me it's crazy, risky, insane, or whatever, but we have decided expanding the Kingdom and reaching the lost are more important than keeping an old church of life support.
I welcome your comments and if you'd like to make a contribution you may go to www.thehavenchurch.com and click on "give." From there you may use your debit or credit card, and may also mark your contribution as "movie church" or "mission maryville". Thanks! Updates and praise reports will follow.
Friday, November 7, 2008
America is not a racist nation...
Our nation just proved in this recent election that we are NOT a racist nation. The dream of Martin Luther King has come to pass decades after his death. Though Barack Obama is not white, he had the opportunity to run for president and succeeded. According to the US Census Bureau, the population of our nation is around 74% white and around 12% black. Obviously, the black population of our nation wasn't enough to elect a president, even if all 12% voted in the election. This leaves the fate of a black man running for president in the hands of a predominantly white nation.
It was the white people of America that elected Barack Obama, proving that racism was NOT an issue in this election. This is cause to rejoice and proves that the walls of racism that once divided our nation are no longer there. That doesn't mean that there will no longer be bigots and prejudice people in our nation. Martin Luther King had a dream of a day when a man would not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Time and trials will reveal to us the true content of Barack Obama's character.
It was the white people of America that elected Barack Obama, proving that racism was NOT an issue in this election. This is cause to rejoice and proves that the walls of racism that once divided our nation are no longer there. That doesn't mean that there will no longer be bigots and prejudice people in our nation. Martin Luther King had a dream of a day when a man would not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Time and trials will reveal to us the true content of Barack Obama's character.
Obama makes history...
America has made history as we just elected the first president who wasn't white. The election is over, American has spoken, our democracy has elected him via free elections. Regardless of how those who didn't vote for him feel, he is now the man! Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities. For there is no authority but of God; the authorities that exist are ordained by God.
We have to now come to the conclusion that God wanted Obama to be the next president of the United States, and God has a purpose in having him in the White House. As the people of God, we are now obligated to pray for him and respect him as our leader, whether we voted for him or not.
As our nation faces "change" and "challenges" our government needs the prayers of the church, not the complaints and criticism. One thing for sure, Barack Obama has his work cut out for him as he becomes president during the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression. I urge you to pray for our new president every day and remember that God has ordained this man to be our nation's leader. Therefore, to rebell and complain against him is the same as rebelling and complaining against God. Unless Barack Obama tries to get us to do something that is against the Bible, we need to support him.
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